You never know how someone’s creative energies will be channeled in this town, and a shrine – or whatever it is – in Liberty Plaza is pretty good evidence of that.

The Chronicle came across this piece of urban art on Christmas Day. The day after Christmas, it was still there.

It is positioned on a snow-covered ledge on the Liberty Street side of the park, and includes a world globe, a coffee can with some Jesus literature inside, various plastic toy animals, some colorful Mardi Gras beads, playing cards and honestly, who knows what else is buried under that snow. Maybe we’ll find out after Saturday’s Big Melt. From yesterday to today, the number of pot-holder-sized crocheted squares has dwindled from three to one.

On the orthogonal ledge, someone has chalked “Chuck Berry RIP” and “Run Run Rudolf” onto the concrete. According to Dead or Alive, Berry is still with us. This may or may not be part of the same “installation” – we’d like to think it is, though we can’t even hazard a guess as to its meaning.

But maybe you can. More photos are after the jump.

A possible Mardi Gras bead belay for this plastic gorilla to use in scaling Mt. Liberty Plaza.

Some playing cards and holiday gift cards are scattered around the shrine. (Image links to higher resolution file.)

Chuck Berry first popularized the song "Run, Rudolph, Run," which includes the lyrics, "Run, Run Rudolph" (or "Rudolf," if you're into alternative spellings).

Lyrics for “Run, Rudolph, Run”

-
Out of all the reindeer you know you’re the mastermind
Run, run Rudolph, Randalph’s not too far behind
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town
Randalph he can hurry, he can take the freeway down
And away went Rudolph a whizzing like a merry-go-round-
Said Santa to a boy child “What have you been longing for?”
“All I want for Christmas is a Rock and Roll electric guitar”
And away went Rudolph a whizzing like a shooting star-
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town
Can’t you make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
And away went Rudolph a whizzing like a merry-go-round-
Said Santa to a girl child “What would you like most to get?”
“I want a little baby doll that can cry, scream and wet”
And away went Rudolph a whizzing like a Saber jet-
Run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, a running like a son-of-a-gun.

MICATS (Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands) is reporting that two of its protesters have been arrested for locking their necks with bicycle U-locks to pipeline construction trucks being used for the Enbridge Line 6B pipeline expansion. [Source]

In a roundup of the lineup for the Aug. 5, 2014 primary elections, we overstated by one year Ward 5 councilmember Chuck Warpehoski’s length of service as a council representative on the city’s environmental commission. He served in that capacity during his first year on the council. We note the error here and have corrected the original article.